What media won't tell you about Trump and China

When President Donald J. Trump announced the U.S. would impose a 25 percent border tax on Chinese imports, he fulfilled the promise he made to the American people to put America First.

His action shows we have a president who is standing up for the working men and women of America, not the business interests of a small slice of the corporate sector.

Wall Street and multinational corporations profited handsomely by relocating factories from the U.S. to the People's Republic of China. Their mouthpieces in the corporate media – a media largely supported by advertisers selling imported merchandise – have falsely portrayed the tariffs as an attack on free enterprise and the American way.

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In fact, the Trump tariffs represent the first line of defense against China's economic aggression against the U.S. and American private enterprise.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army has been systematically hacking the computers of our businesses, government and military. China "promised" the Obama administration it would stop its cyber-espionage, but that "promise" is worth as much as all the other "promises" Beijing has made over the decades – nothing.

China forces foreign businesses to hand over their blueprints and technology to a Chinese "partner" as a condition of access to the Chinese market. This "partner" then sets up a new company that competes against the foreign business using the technology and blueprints.

China dumps products, ranging from steel and aluminum to autos and robotics, into U.S. markets at prices below the cost of production. The goal is to drive out competitors and corner the market in key industries. China wants to own these industries on a global scale – and thereby own the future.

China's state-owned enterprises don't operate according to free-market principles. They receive subsidies from the government, in the form of free cash, energy, land, no-interest loans and forced labor. These enterprises warp markets and through exports spread their more-than-market influence around the world, destroying businesses that play by the rules of free-market capitalism.

China manipulates exchange rates, deliberately undervaluing its currency to make its exports cheaper than American products. This is another way Beijing cheats to gain an upper hand against foreign competitors.

China is killing more than jobs and industries in America – it's killing people. China is flooding the U.S. with fentanyl, the potent synthetic heroin that's responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. China's Communist government tracks every move its citizens make, but claims it's unable to shut down the factories producing these deadly drugs.

The commentators who criticize the president for imposing tariffs don't explain what they would do to punish China for its predatory actions and duplicitous dealings.

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Instead, they invoke economic dogma that says tariffs are pure economic poison. Never mind that their incantations don't explain why China has prospered even as it has maintained the highest tariffs in the world.

These same commentators and high priests of the Church of Free Trade predicted economic doom after the president first slapped tariffs on Chinese goods and metal imports months ago. Consumer prices would skyrocket and GDP would crash, they harrumphed with certainty.

But the forecasters' doom and gloom never came to pass. Inflation is flat, and the latest numbers on economic growth for the first quarter of 2019 show 3.2 percent annual real GDP growth – an astonishingly good number.

Fully 1 point of that GDP growth was due to reducing the trade deficit with China through the Trump tariffs. Thanks to tariffs, we see more investment in production in the U.S. and less off-shoring of American factories to China.

But here's the biggest point the media commentariat has missed:

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This is not about cheap T-shirts and TVs.

It's about our country and our way of life.

If the Chinese Communist Party has its way, the People's Republic of China will be the leading power in the world. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and private property will be erased along with any mention of those ideals. Not just in China, but everywhere. It's already started.

That's what this conflict is about.

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President Trump is standing up for America.

We as a country must be united. At this critical point in our history, we can't let partisan politics stop us from standing up to China.